A Hong Kong kindergarten clerk who was seriously injured by a taxi during the 2019 anti-government protests has told the High Court she has been unable to resume a normal life, citing ongoing mobility limitations, extensive leg scarring and the likelihood of future knee replacement surgery.
Park Hoi-lam’s lawyers on Tuesday urged the court to find taxi driver Henry Cheng Kwok-chuen liable for at least HK$8.4 million (US$1.07 million) in damages after his vehicle mounted a pavement and struck her during a demonstration in Sham Shui Po on October 6, 2019.
The defence denied liability and stressed the cabby lost control of his car after being surrounded and attacked by protesters.
The plaintiff’s counsel, Susanna Leong, said the accident itself showed Cheng’s negligence and failure to exercise a reasonable level of care.
She said Cheng never sounded his horn or attempted to brake before his vehicle hit her client and another woman on Yen Chow Street.
She stressed the subsequent assault on the driver by protesters was irrelevant to how and why the collision took place.
Defence lawyers maintained that Cheng was himself an innocent victim who was “viciously attacked with metal rods and hard objects in the course of his working day”.
“However serious the injuries sustained by the plaintiff were, seeking recompense through the courts from another victim of the violence does not, with respect, deliver justice,” they said.
Testifying in a personal injury lawsuit initiated in 2022, Park said she and her friends were on their way to Tsim Sha Tsui by bus that afternoon when blocked roads forced them to alight in Sham Shui Po.
Upon learning that railway services had also been suspended, the group decided to walk to Mong Kok, but the plaintiff walked too quickly and got separated from her friends, the court heard.
Park, who was then working as a packer at a pharmaceutical firm, described the gathering crowd as peaceful before she heard a commotion near Cheng’s taxi.
“When I turned around and tried to run away, the taxi rammed into me at very high speed,” she said, adding that she did not see anyone beside the driver inside the vehicle.
Park sustained serious injuries to her lower limbs and underwent seven operations over the next three months. She was discharged on January 18 the following year, but still required outpatient therapies.
Although her condition has improved, she told the court she still experiences knee pain and cannot walk for more than an hour without resting.
Now employed as a clerk at a kindergarten near her residence in Tuen Mun, Park said she is unable to lift heavy objects while at work, or pacify crying toddlers by carrying them in her arms.
While her cosmetic doctor advised her to undergo reconstructive surgery for the scars on her legs, Park said she did not have the money for the procedure.
The plaintiff was also told that her condition would not improve further despite receiving two additional surgeries after her discharge from hospital, and that she might require knee replacement surgery in the future.
Defence counsel Ashok Sakhrani asked why Park had brought along a barrister and lawyer when she gave a police statement in March 2020.
But Park said she was merely protecting her own interests. She denied any involvement in the protest or that she was worried about possible legal consequences for her actions.
The defence also cited covert surveillance footage obtained by a private detective agency in arguing that Park was able to lead a normal life and walk without much difficulty, but the plaintiff said the video did not reflect the whole picture.
“The footage was just about me doing some shopping and dining after work. They were the things that normal people do. Does that alone equate to leading a meaningful life?” she asked.
The trial before Mr Justice Simon Leung Chun-man is expected to last six days. -- SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
